Sunday 27 March – Joyeuses Pâques

So, true to my word, a blog on a Sunday evening again and I will ensure that I get back into posting more regularly.

Firstly, as I also made a commitment in last week’s blog, I have attached a couple of photographs of the, finally planted, new flower bed in front of Hayloft which we built with some of the slate we have dug up. I have also added a photo of how it looked before just as a comparison.

Just with this new bed the sheer number of plants that we are going to need to get the garden to a state we want will take time. The new Hayloft bed has absorbed 5 lavender plants, 3 thyme, an azela, a rosemary and something we’re not sure what it is but it is attractive, and it still looks empty!

You may recall that we visited a school for people with Downs Syndrome in June last year for their annual fête. The fête had been recommended to us as the school run a small nursery and ‘raffle’ off lots of their surplus plants which we needed to start the garden changes. What actually occurred was that, as we hadn’t really planned the garden at all at the time or created any flower beds, most of the plants have been stored in their pots ever since and have suffered from being blown about, over watered when wet and endured drought when dry. Unsurprisingly a number perished although, amazingly, most held on and we are now in a position to start to plant them out.

The (very minor) disadvantage of the lottery plants is that they don’t have labels so, if they can’t be identified, we’re not sure how big they might get, what position they need to be planted and whether they can tolerate acidic soil. Some trial and error needed! One such unidentified plant, in fact tree, has been very tolerant in its pot since last June as we didn’t know where to put it. This week, to give it a better chance of survival, we chose to make it the feature plant in the new bed behind Priory. The tree has lovely smooth red bark and from memory(!) the tree had lovely autumnal colour with fabulous red leaves and berries which we think will look great against the grey slate of the building. Like a lot of the work we have done we like to think that we are making our mark on Kergudon and will be here for years to come – planting a tree certainly feels ‘significant’!

The fabulous weather of the previous 2 weeks lasted for a few more days which allowed us to work outside and clear all of the piles of wood which I had built up with the clearance of the previous few months as well as plant our a number of our other long suffering plants.

Sadly, the weather broke yesterday which was very disappointing for our guests who arrived on Thursday and has meant they have had a couple of wet days With the forecast being so poor their crossing home tomorrow from Roscoff to Plymouth has already been cancelled and they need to travel to Cherbourg for a crossing to Portsmouth.

Today started brightly – and very calm – so we took the opportunity to take Garratt for a walk and went to Huelgoat, a town about 15 minutes from us. Huelgoat is located on the edge of its own lake, not quite as large as Lac du Drennec, but its main attraction is its forest and fabulous boulders and geological formations. We have found many walks through the ‘enchanted’ woods but today took a completely new path and found yet another magical walk, this time along the path of a canal. While it is called a canal, it is not of the scale for boats and is simply a channel built in the 18th century to provide water to the local lead mines.

Our circular walk took in another lovely geological feature, the Huelgoat gouffre, where the river d’Argent passes through a choke point in the rocks making a gorge. The more we see of Huelgoat the more we like it as we discover the variety of walks available which are very different to those on the Monts D’Arrée, 2 excellent cafés, a creperie and a pub and all only 15 minutes away.

Looking ahead to activities that are coming up in the region which may be of interest, a highlight is the Brest International Maritime Festival being held between 13 and 19 July. Held every 4 years the festival is a celebration of all things maritime and promises to be a great event.

For now, the weather has deteriorated during the day and we are waiting with trepidation for the arrival of Storm Katie passing up the channel overnight tonight. We are very pleased that we got our roof repairs completed a couple of weeks ago although the speed of the winds forecast could easily cause more damage. Fingers crossed we will make it through unscathed although I don’t hold out as much hope for the annual Easter Monday Marché sur l’eau held on the barrage at the Lac du Drennec.